1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a printing plate holder for pad printing machines, comprising a plate-shaped base body with a recessed ink reservoir on its upper side extending parallel to the back. In the area in front of the ink reservoir, the base body is provided with a receptacle dimensioned to accommodate the measurements of the printing plate and a clamping means is provided for holding the plate.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A pad printing machine using such plate holders is disclosed in German patent publication No. DE-AS 19 39 437. In this prior plate holder, the ink reservoir and the plate receptacle are simply in the form of depressions in the top surface of the base body in an appropriately aligned relationship to each other. The dimensions of the plate receptacle exactly matches the dimensions of the plate. This particular construction consequently requires a different plate holder for each differently sized plate. In view of the multiplicity of different sizes of plates this means that as many plate holders as different sizes of plates must be kept in stock. Furthermore, changing a plate also necessitates changing the plate holder so that the setup times are unduly increased.